


Disaster You, Disaster Me, Disaster We

by nerdlife4eva



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Tension, Awkwardness, Blind Date, Dorks in Love, Drunken Flirting, Drunken Kissing, Drunken Shenanigans, Drunkenness, First Dates, First Kiss, First Meetings, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, Gay Disaster Keith (Voltron), Gay Disaster Shiro (Voltron), Humor, Implied Sexual Content, Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Kissing, M/M, Sassy Pidge | Katie Holt, Sheith Prompt Party, Snowed In
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-08-17 08:54:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16513202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdlife4eva/pseuds/nerdlife4eva
Summary: Keith believes he is unlovable.Shiro has been hiding from love for far too long.When mutual friends set them up on the night before their city's biggest blizzard in history, what was a night of drunken kisses and terrible flirting turns into a weekend filled with a whole lot more.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first of three stories for the [SheithPromptParty](https://sheithpromptparty.tumblr.com) on Tumblr! There are a lot of amazing creators contributing to this event so please check out the blog to see everyone's content! 
> 
> If you want to talk Sheith with me, I would love to hear from you!! Please find me on Twitter or Tumblr :)  
> [NeRdLife4Eva Twitter](https://twitter.com/NeRdLife4Eva)  
> [n3rdlif343va Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/n3rdlif343va)

Letting Pidge move in was a bad idea.

The _entire_ idea wasn’t bad… She paid her rent, did her half of the chores and Keith hadn’t needed to call an electrician or a plumber in over a year. (And most of their kitchen appliances now talked to them, which also wasn’t _particularly_ bad outside of their excessive sarcasm and the toaster’s need to evil laugh whenever his toast got burnt.) For those reasons, Keith was appreciative of his quasi little sister turned roommate.

But her ability to rally their friends into bad ideas, especially those surrounding around hooking Keith up with a significant other, greatly detracted from all her positive roommate points. Especially when she decided to sleep through his current mental breakdown over Hunk’s early morning suggestive teasing.

Sitting at the kitchen table, Keith clicked over his laptop screen, aimlessly reviewing the discussion board that he was supposed to be monitoring. Every Friday there was a flourish of activity, students trying to answer their discussion questions and achieve their required number of interaction posts before the weekend began. It was generally Keith’s busiest day and he liked to stay on top of it for the sake of his sanity. Today though, his concentration wouldn’t come out to play, stuffed away behind the anxiety of whatever or whoever Pidge was going to spring on him.

He had already been up for hours, completing most of his chores and even stopping at Hunk’s bakery to pick up the muffins Hunk had insisted they needed to try. Hunk’s cheerful morning conversation had hinted about another set up in Keith’s future, causing Keith to grab the bag of muffins and run for home. He knew it wouldn’t be necessarily better to be ambushed by Pidge on the subject, but it would be an improvement to the bakery full of people witnessing Keith’s panicked stammering.

All of their friends thought Keith should have found himself in a serious relationship by this point in his life and Keith couldn’t seem to convince them that he simply wasn’t compatible with anyone. His temper was short, his ability to trust was nonexistent, and people tended to crawl under his skin in a very unpleasant way. Existing with Pidge in his space had been an adjustment, but he was glad it was her and not one of the others. Most of the time.

The pouty stomp of Pidge’s footsteps on the stairs had Keith glancing expectantly at the entrance to his kitchen, breaking the distracted haze he had fallen into.  “Morning,” Pidge grumbled, trudging across the kitchen and tipping a mug off of the hanging rack before grabbing the coffee pot. “The early bird gets the worm, so it appears you’ll only be getting dirt today,” chirped their snarky caffeine dispenser. Sticking her tongue out at the machine, Pidge plunked down next to Keith in her chair at the table.

“It told me this morning that happy people sleep past sunrise.” Nudging the paper bag toward Pidge, Keith ducked to hide his smile when she excitedly extracted her muffin. He needed to keep his game face on so he was ready to reject any idea she threw at him. “For the appliance we use the most, our coffee pot sure is mean.”

Snorting into her mug, Pidge blew off the steam that was causing her glasses to fog. “When I repaired it we hadn’t had coffee here in three days. I may have channeled the pain of my caffeine withdrawal a little too strongly.”

“That explains so much,” Keith nodded, getting preoccupied by a heated argument on the online message board between two students. Both of them were painfully wrong in all the points they were making, but Keith was highly amused by watching them make asses of themselves and grateful for a diversion from the anxiety swirling in his brain. A reasonable professor probably would have stopped them. Good thing Keith never felt the need to be one.

It wasn’t until Pidge poked his shin with her toe that Keith realized she had been talking to him the whole time. Returning her disapproving look, Keith scowled at her.

“I was saying…” stuffing a bite of muffin into her mouth, Pidge chewed painfully slow, holding her eye contact with Keith the whole time as a very obvious punishment for him ignoring her in the first place. Brushing crumbs from the side of her mouth, Pidge only continued when Keith’s eyes drifted back to his computer, a hand flying out to pull it away from Keith’s grasp. Ignoring Keith’s wordless protest, Pidge continued her thought. “As I was saying… Hunk has this friend-”

“No.” Keith didn’t even want her to finish the sentence. Out of all of them, Hunk had been the most vocal about Keith deserving love, but never one to pony up any victims to the cause. Until that morning, when Hunk had definitely been trying to tell him about said friend while Keith glared daggers over the bakery counter. He couldn’t deny that part of him was intrigued simply because this one was Hunk’s idea, but the larger part of him was terrified.

“Don’t no me!” Practically slamming her coffee down on the table, Pidge shook her head. “Look, I let you live your life and yes I have opinions about you being perpetually alone-”

“Not alone, I have you to harass me.” Keith smirked when Pidge raised an unpleased eyebrow at him. “Besides, the last blind date you all sent me on, the second the guy found out what I teach, he started spewing off crazy ideas about alternate realities and space theories robbed from Star Trek. And he was all hands, and not in a good way!”

Not acknowledging any of Keith’s snarky resistance, Pidge kept going. “He’s a friend of a friend. Allura, you remember her right? The one Lance would literally die just to share air with? This guy’s her friend. Hunk met him and they both agree he is perfect for you.” Picking her coffee back up, Pidge paused to drink.

“No one is perfect for me,” Keith grumbled, yanking his laptop back in front of him. The heat gathering at the tips of his ears made him angry, wondering why his ridiculous mind had decided to have some thread of hope. Hunk had also said something about Allura agreeing her friend was perfect for Keith, but Keith had tried in vain to shove that thought away. Every other time it was all of them convincing Keith to give a guy a chance. No one ever talked about perfection. And that fact alone was sending Keith into infinite layers of hellish turmoil.

“Well, that sucks for you, because he’ll be at Atlas at seven waiting for you. It’s just drinks, Keith.” Staring at her phone screen, Pidge missed the glare Keith was leveling her way. “This is Shiro.” Holding up her phone, Keith saw her patented know-it-all smirk over the top of it.

Unfortunately, any intelligent argument he could have constructed about the ignorance of forcibly scheduling a date for someone died on his tongue. In front of him was a picture of the most gorgeous man Keith had ever seen. His hair was stark white and his smile was the kind that people wrote poetry about. He had a jawline that could cut glass and Keith could feel the way his body was reacting, unconsciously shifting in his seat. “There is no way,” Keith said out loud, unsure if he was talking about Shiro’s actual existence or the fact that someone who looked like _that_ would actually want Keith. “Pidge, I can’t…”

“You can and you will. It’s almost winter, don’t you want someone to cuddle and keep warm with?” Blinking behind her glasses, Pidge looked at Keith without a hint of irony despite her ridiculous question.

Sighing, Keith knew he wasn’t going to win. If he was really honest with himself, he didn’t want to fight Pidge on this one. If Shiro (with his gorgeously kind eyes and biceps that made Keith want to cry with joy) really wanted to meet him, then the least Keith could do was have a drink with the guy. And even though Keith was guaranteed to be awkward and never get asked for a second date, at least he would get to see those biceps in person.

“Have fun tonight,” Pidge winked, abandoning Keith at the table and laughing when he growled in response.

Left on his own, Keith stared blankly at his computer, his brain clicking uselessly. Eight hours stood between Keith and his date with Shiro. That was eight hours to panic over what the hell he was supposed to say and come to terms with the feeling curling in his stomach.

A feeling of foreboding that told him life was about to change forever.

Telling his brain to shut the fuck up and not to get his heart’s hopes up, Keith returned to his computer, determined to concentrate on his work and not on all the fantasies that were cropping up in his mind. “One date isn’t going to change anything,” Keith whisper growled to himself. Clicking on the strand still growing between his two worst students, Keith decided to distract himself by telling them all the ways in which they were wrong.

In the back of his mind, the image of Shiro’s smiling face continued to hover.

* * *

 

The bar was crowded. Shiro had never set foot in this particular location, but he enjoyed the modern look of the place and the sleek appearance which contrasted with all the dive bars in the area. Looking around he spotted two empty seats and squeezed his way through groups of people to drop down on a stool before draping his coat over the other. He was a full thirty minutes early and a quick sweep of the open room revealed no one nearly as attractive as the man he was supposed to be meeting.

Keith Kogane, college professor, avid restorer of motorcycles, and an astrophysicist. According to Allura, Keith loved dogs but was so-so about people and spent a lot of time in their local dojo. Shiro was more of a gym rat himself, although he wouldn’t be opposed to attempting to spar if Keith would be up for it. In fact, Shiro could think of a lot of things he would be up for, just based on Keith’s picture alone.

Blushing into his hairline because of his own thoughts, Shiro startled when his phone rang in his pocket. Answering it, he shouted his hello to Allura.

“Is he there yet?” Allura asked, her voice sounding hopeful and making Shiro’s nerves spike again. Her words during their lunch the previous day, spinning a picture of Shiro’s perfect partner and then identifying that person as Keith, were still weaving between every one of Shiro’s thoughts. 

“Uh… not yet.” Shiro eyed the bartender from his spot wondering if he should get a drink while he waited.

“You sound nervous,” Allura noted, in her finely-tuned poignant way of pointing out the obvious. “Get a shot and then order a drink, calm your nerves. He is going to love you.”

Before Shiro could respond the line went dead, leaving him without a lifeline in his escalating panic. Waving a slightly wild hand at the bartender, Shiro appreciated the man’s kind smile as he took Shiro’s order.

Twirling the shot of whiskey between his thumb and forefinger, Shiro debated the validity of Allura’s idea. He wasn’t a small man and he could certainly hold his liquor, so one shot realistically wouldn’t affect him enough for Keith to notice. Feeling another tremble of nerves vibrate in his chest, Shiro plucked the shot glass from the bar and downed it. Slamming it down harder than necessary, he moved onto his Jack and Coke, drinking half of the glass in one gulp.

The liquor burned through him and Shiro stared at the bar, focusing on the way the sensation traveled down his torso and into his stomach. Anything to keep his mind off of the perfect flop of black hair and the stern yet wild look in Keith’s eyes. Shiro had made Allura text him the picture and had spent the better part of the previous day memorizing every line of Keith’s face.

Every time he looked at the picture, Shiro felt a zing of breathlessness shoot through him. It was a feeling, deep in his gut, that told him Keith wasn’t like all the others. Allura had said Keith wouldn’t care about his hair or his arm and somehow Shiro believed it was true before he had even met the man. Maybe it was silly, maybe it was because Shiro had closed himself off from the possibility of love for so long, but his heartbeats tripled in speed every single time he thought about Keith’s smirk.

It had been a long time (ridiculously long according to his friends) since Shiro had willingly put himself out there. Excuses carefully crafted from broken trust, shattered hearts, and body changes gave Shiro all the logical reasons he needed to avoid romance. He concentrated on his work, took care of his home, and generally lived a very simple life. Romantic relationships had a way of disrupting his peace and therefore, he had started to avoid them. Then lunch with Allura had happened and now he was armed with a photo of a stunning man, a date with said man, and an ever-increasing sense of hope that Shiro couldn’t shake. He tended to survive by listening to his gut instincts and this time his gut was telling him tonight was going to be life changing.

Realizing how far into his head he had gotten, Shiro lifted his hand again and practically begged the bartender for another shot.

Hoping his nerves would settle ahead of Keith’s arrival, Shiro threw back the second shot and didn’t dwell on the taste as he chased it with the remaining contents of his drink. He was determined to make the best first impression he could, no matter how much alcohol he had to consume to make it happen. Swirling the ice in the bottom of his empty glass, Shiro drummed his fingers on the bar and waited for Keith to arrive.

* * *

 

Stumbling down the stairs, Keith shrugged on his jacket and glared over his shoulder at Pidge. The air had a nasty chill to it, making Keith shiver underneath his top layer of leather. A t-shirt may not have been his best decision considering the overwhelming coldness of the wind whipping around him, but he had given up trying for something better over an hour ago. Zipping his jacket up, Keith was thankful for the alcohol Pidge had suggested, letting the lingering warmth heat him from the inside out.

“You need to go,” Pidge called from the front door, arms crossed over her chest. “Three shots is only going to last for so long in this cold. Get your ass there before your confidence booster wears off. I’m going to Hunk’s by the way. Place will be empty for the night. I’m just saying…” With a mock salute, Pidge stepped back and slammed the front door. 

Keith’s entire face bloomed with heat, and not from the alcohol seeping into his system. He hadn’t brought someone home since Pidge had moved in and he hadn’t even considered it a possibility for his night with Shiro. (Not really. Or not hardly. Maybe briefly in the shower, but that was it.) Shoving his hands deeper in his pockets, Keith groaned at his own ridiculousness and set off down the pavement.

The Atlas was only a block from their house and yet Keith had only ever been there under protest. He preferred smaller bars with fewer crowds where he could hear his friends talk without straining. But if Shiro wanted to meet at the Atlas, the Atlas was exactly where Keith was going to go.

Making his way down the sidewalk, hands shoved firmly in his pockets and body shivering, Keith tried desperately to think of anything he could say to make Shiro like him. The “just be yourself” bullshit had never worked for him because the true version of himself was somewhere between a debilitating hero complex and a need to care about no one but himself. Pidge called him a corundum, Lance called him emo, and Keith just figured he wasn’t very lovable. Kicking at a loose rock, Keith felt his mind being relaxed by the vodka burning through it and tried to hold onto that feeling.

The minute the door swung open to the over-crowded bar with the insane level of noise spilling out of it, Keith lost all hope of keeping himself relaxed. Standing on his tiptoes, Keith scanned the large room, eyes frantically searching for a familiar face. When they landed on a head of white hair, Keith felt himself swallow hard. Even from a distance, Shiro looked incredible and Keith immediately felt his heart jump up into his throat.

For a moment, Keith almost turned on his heels and ran, but then Shiro looked up at the bartender and laughed. His smile was crafted by the gods themselves, Keith was sure of it, and he found himself needing to hear the sound of Shiro’s laughter. Moving with a singular point of focus, Keith weaved his way through the bar toward what he hoped was his future.

* * *

 

Shiro was buzzed. There was absolutely no question about it, especially after his third and fourth shot. The bartender had given him the fourth one for free, and offered to take one at the same time. Mind starting to feel a little fuzzy, he laughed at the cat meme at on his phone and decided to save it in case he wanted to show it to Keith. He was busy doing so when a warm presence appeared at his shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Shiro said, not looking up, “this seat is saved.” Placing his phone on the bar, Shiro turned to properly address the person standing at his side.

His jaw dropped. Some say pictures are worth a thousand words, but neither pictures nor words could ever do justice to the description of the man before him. “I… um… uh… Are you… Keith?” Standing partially off of his stool, Shiro wished that he had any idea how to be anything but awkward. Holding a hand out, he could only stare as Keith’s long fingers slid across Shiro’s own broad palm.

“Shiro?’ Keith asked, shaking their joined hands up and down, brain completely drowned in static at how big Shiro’s body was compared to Keith’s own. He wasn’t even sure if he had a type, but he was positive Shiro was it.

Their handshake continued, both of them silently staring at each other, hands bobbing up and down between them. If either of them realized how absurd they looked, neither of them acknowledged it, only pulling away from each other’s gazes when the bartender cleared his throat. Turning simultaneously to look at the man, it was Keith who noticed their hands first, jumping slightly and pulling his hand back.

Silently, the bartender filled two shot glasses, placing them in front of each stool at the bar and walking away with a wink. Looking back at each other, Shiro and Keith both shrugged. Settling next onto their stools, they reached for their shot glasses and clinked them together.

As Shiro dumped the alcohol down his throat he said a silent prayer begging for coolness.

As Keith swallowed his own shot, he begged his brain not to let him say anything stupid.

Ordering a round of actual drinks, they each curled a hand around their own glasses and shared a shy smile, both of them feeling hopeful and edging toward more than buzzed.

* * *

 

Four hours had passed by in a flash. The first ten minutes of their night had been filled with painful ineptness, but after their second shot, the bubble had burst. Shiro had showed Keith the cat meme on his phone and Keith had showed Shiro an email from a student giving the worst excuse imaginable for needing an extension, and from there the conversation flowed anywhere and everywhere.

Currently they were in a heated debate over new research regarding the total expanse of the solar system, including calculations and crude diagrams sketched on a stack of bar napkins. Keith’s head was swimming with a mixture of sexual attraction, alcohol, and a fierce need to be right, causing him to kneel on his bar stool and lean into Shiro’s space to point out the obvious errors in his calculations.

Shiro poked at Keith’s hand with his pen, using the same pen to flick Keith’s nose as Shiro made another correction to Keith’s argument. He had never met anyone who could intellectually match him the way Keith did, their arguments were complex and detailed despite what was probably noticeably slurred speech to anyone in their near vicinity. Unable to find it in him to care, Shiro bumped his shoulder against Keith’s and glanced upward to try to hear Keith’s words over the noise of the bar.

Keith was so close, bent over with his ass in the air and his elbows braced on the bar and Shiro immediately forgot what they were supposed to be talking about. His traitorous brain began to calculate his own height when standing behind Keith in his current position and his mind went happily skipping down a mental path of sexual desire. Lost in his train of thought, Shiro watched Keith’s lips move as he talked, not hearing a single word Keith was saying. Keith’s lips were slightly chapped, and invitingly pink and Shiro wanted nothing more than to taste them for himself. A hand gripping his chin had Shiro snapping his eyes up to meet Keith’s narrowed ones.

“Are you listening to me?” Keith had been yammering on for a full two minutes about how Shiro was using the wrong formula. He was driven in his quest to prove his point, almost willing to ignore the way Shiro’s eyes couldn’t stay focused on the napkin in front of him. Seeing Shiro’s eyes drop again, Keith could feel the tingle of anticipation as he licked his bottom lip.

“I…” Shiro couldn’t find any brain cells to rub together, most of them taking a bath in the generous pools of available intoxication. Inhibitions numbed and missing in action, Shiro curled his finger in the front of Keith’s t-shirt (the ridiculously tight t-shirt that had been making Shiro lose his mind all night) and pulled him forward. Keith’s hand tightened on his jaw and suddenly Shiro was being kissed like they weren’t sitting in a crowded bar surrounded by god knows how many people.

Sober Keith would never have approved of the way drunk Keith ran his tongue along the seam of Shiro’s lips, grinning into the kiss as Shiro met him halfway. Still, drunk Keith was positive sober Keith would thank him in the morning. Sliding his legs off of the bar stool, Keith let himself be pulled in between Shiro’s thighs, never breaking the kiss and taking the opportunity to finally slip his fingers into Shiro’s hair. It was outrageously soft, exactly as Keith had imagined it to be.  

Shiro was drowning. Keith tasted like alcohol and his hands in Shiro’s hair were a perfect mix of gentle and demanding, making Shiro’s head spin. They had spent most of the night talking, but it wasn’t until they started debating that Shiro really understood how smart Keith was. Their back and forth had fed directly into Shiro’s libido and he had been fighting his arousal with every equation and graph Keith had scribbled.

Wrapping his arms around Keith’s back, Shiro gripped him tightly, loving the sound of Keith’s gasp as Shiro moved to skim teeth and tongue down Keith’s neck. Keith was physically hot and intellectually sexy, making Shiro want to pick him up and carry him all the way home.

“My house is only a block from here,” Keith lifted his chin, letting Shiro gain more access to his skin, laughing when Shiro whispered, “didn’t realize I was talking out loud.” Moaning low and pressing his chest into Shiro’s to let him feel it, Keith made his offer more precise. “Want to come back to my house and kiss more than my neck?” Later he could be embarrassed by the brash request, but right now, Keith couldn’t think about anything other than Shiro in his bed. Or on his couch. Or really anywhere that wasn’t the inside of a crowded bar.

“Yes, God, yes,” Shiro responded. Standing from his stool, he lost his footing. Keith caught him, holding him steady and smiling softly. “You saved me.” Shiro spoke with the reverence of a man being rescued from imminent death, making Keith laugh. “You’re my hero.”

“I-” Keith was struck in the back by a pushy patron, throwing him forward into Shiro’s arms. Blinking up at Shiro, he smiled at Shiro’s goofy grin. “I guess we saved each other.” He shouldn’t have sounded like he was swooning, but Keith was definitely swooning. “Let’s get the tab and get out of here,” he suggested, squeezing Shiro’s biceps because he could no longer resist the urge to do so. “I want to lick them,” he said, eyes going wide when he realized how loud the declaration was.

“You can lick mine if I can lick yours,” Shiro offered, raising one eyebrow and trying to wiggle both of his eyebrows at the same time. He knew he looked ridiculous and wasn’t offended when Keith started laughing.

“I’ll give you something to lick,” Keith flicked Shiro’s jaw, leaning hard into Shiro’s chest. He was trying to flirt in hopes of guaranteeing the fulfillment of all the fantasies romping wildly in his brain, but he was pretty sure they were both more turned on when they were arguing over physics. The thought made him burst out laughing, dropping his head on Shiro’s shoulder and only looking up when their tab was placed in front of them.

“Let’s split it and then split this… ice cream… stand,” Shiro reached for the check and paused when Keith started laughing again. He wasn’t sure why he doubted that Keith would laugh so much, but he found the sound completely addicting. “What?” he said, purposefully dramatic in his exasperation and happy when Keith’s laughter continued.

“Popsicle stand! Not… ice cream…” Keith wheezed with his laughter, the last remaining drop of logic left in his brain trying to tell him it wasn’t that funny. Unable to listen to that reasonable assessment, Keith reached for his own wallet and clumsily tossed his own card on the bar. “Popsicle,” he snickered, chin coming up when Shiro yanked him forward with strong hands grasping Keith’s ass.

“I’ll give you a popsicle,” Shiro teased, kneading into Keith’s ass and completely forgetting that everyone around them could see what he was doing.

Still laughing as he leaned over the bar to sign the slip, Keith gave the bartender a large tip for putting up with them and hurriedly shoved his card back into his wallet. “You better put your popsicle where your mouth is… or my mouth… or my popsicle.” Confusing himself, it was Keith’s turn to blush while Shiro took his turn to laugh. Narrowing his eyes, Keith leaned into Shiro’s ear. “I don’t care whose popsicle it is, let’s just get fucking out of here.” Lacing his fingers through Shiro’s hand, Keith yanked him toward the door.

In what Shiro hoped was an internal-only chant, all he could think was “hell yes! Hell yes! HELL YES!”

* * *

 

Stepping from the heat of the bar into the cold of the night was a shock to Keith’s system. His skin prickled underneath the fabric of his jacket and he found himself shivering violently despite the amount of alcohol running through him. Turning his eyes to the sky, Keith silently accused it of robbing him of any smoothness he might have possessed.

“It’s cold,” Shiro helpfully supplied. Tugging up his own zipper with one hand and pulling Keith closer to him with the other, he caused them both to unsteadily rock to the side. In an attempt to recover from his own clumsiness, Shiro nuzzled into the side of Keith’s face. “I’ll keep you warm.” He hated himself for saying yet another cheesy line, but immediately let himself off the hook when Keith found his lips again. Even as he felt his toes freezing inside of his shoes, Shiro could feel the heat of Keith’s kisses battling to warm the rest of him. Sighing happily into the kiss, Shiro wrapped his arms around Keith to hold him closer.

Another forceful shiver caused Keith to break away from the kiss, his entire body protesting the exposure to the rapidly dropping temperature. If his senses had been more keen and less dumbed down by alcohol (and his undeniable lust for Shiro), Keith might have questioned the smell of snow in the quickly cooling air. But, he and Shiro hadn’t racked up a two hundred dollar bar tab on food and soda, so his ability to logically assess the weather was nonexistent. Feeling his muscles spasm again, Keith didn’t fight it when Shiro draped his arm around Keith’s waist and guided him into the warmth of Shiro’s side.

They made a stumbling mass of mismatched proportions, moving toward Keith’s house with a complete lack of grace which made both of them giggle. Keith’s arm found its way around Shiro’s waist and he told himself that his hand was in Shiro’s back pocket solely for the warmth Keith found there. It had nothing to do with how firm and squeezable Shiro’s ass was, nor did it have anything to do with the way Keith’s heart jumped around in his chest feeling Shiro’s muscles flex underneath the cup of his hand.

Sliding cold fingers under the hem of Keith’s t-shirt, Shiro enjoyed the goosebumps exploding over Keith’s skin as Shiro snuck his fingertips below the waistband of Keith’s impossibly tight jeans. Keith’s hipbone fit snuggly into the curve of Shiro’s palm and his brain pranced around the idea of getting both of his hands on Keith. He was almost positive he could lift Keith and support his weight against a wall… and the thought continued to play with him as they made their clumsy way over the pavement.

“Me,” Keith said, stopping abruptly and nearly tripping Shiro onto the ground. Catching Shiro with a hand spread over Shiro’s abs, Keith had to bite his own lip to keep from groaning. “Yum…” his mind hummed as his traitorous mouth failed to keep the thought to himself. “I… my house… That is…” Nodding over his shoulder, Keith let himself get distracted by Shiro’s smile. Forgetting the cold and the ignoring the weird bluish color his fingers were turning, Keith leaned up on his tiptoes to steal another kiss.

The only thought left in Shiro’s brain as Keith kissed him was pressing Keith up against something and fast. Backing Keith towards the closest lamppost, Shiro leaned into him, chuckling when Keith shuddered with the contact of cold metal. Tipping his head to the side, Shiro changed the angle of the kiss to send both him and Keith spiraling toward something far more indecent than should be displayed in public.

A door slammed behind Shiro, startling him and causing him to headbutt Keith. Both of them groaned and grabbed their faces, jumping at the sound of two different people calling their names.

Peering over Shiro’s shoulder, Keith rolled his eyes to the sky to avoid the smug smile on Pidge’s face as she descended the stairs toward them. “Pidge…” Keith grumbled, “I thought you were gone.” He attempted to pull away from the pole and yelped when his hair stuck to the metal along with his jacket.

Distracted by Keith’s grimace, Shiro laced a hand behind Keith’s head and carefully tried to pull his hair away from the sheen of ice it was caught on. “Did you call her Smidge?” Shiro whispered, glancing only briefly at Keith’s perplexed look. “Because she’s like… a smidge of a person?” A giggle escaped Shiro and he accidently whacked his hand on the frozen pole, frowning when the metal of his prosthetic clinked loudly.

“Oh my God,” Keith exhaled, laughter causing him to bend forward, the peeling sound of his jacket coming loose from the pole echoing around them. “I definitely didn’t but I am going to now!”

“Try and die,” Pidge threatened, throwing open the car door to Hunk’s sedan.

“She’s tiny but mighty!” Waving from behind the steering wheel, Hunk grinned when Pidge punched his arm. “I see the date is going well. Hey, Shiro.”

Despite his drunkenness, Keith could feel the embarrassment blooming on his face. Shiro lifted a hand and waved back at Hunk, his smile a little goofy and so cute Keith almost forgot they had an audience. When Pidge cleared her throat, Keith shook his head, feeling his cheeks flush deeper.

“No sex in my room!” Slamming the car door, Pidge rolled down the window. “I mean it Kogane! Keep it in your roo-” The window was being forcibly rolled up by Hunk’s control and Keith made a mental note to thank him later. Waving half-heartedly, Keith turned back to Shiro when there was a tug on his elbow.

“So… does that mean…” Shiro wanted to know if the house was empty. He wanted to know if they were on the same page. Even though his mind was working slowly under the influence of their night of many, many drinks, he still had enough sense to try to clarify the situation.

Not that it mattered. When Keith grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back into a kiss, Shiro wasn’t sure he could resist sticking Keith to the pole again. Luckily, he didn’t have to make the decision as Keith turned away, hand remaining curled in Shiro’s shirt and pulled him up the stairs to the front door.

Shoving the door open, Keith yanked Shiro inside and slammed the door shut again, grateful to block out the freezing air which was attempting to lodge itself deep in his bones. “Welcome to my house,” he remarked, dropping his own jacket on the ground and relieving Shiro of his coat. Backing into the house, Keith used both hands to guide Shiro with him, reaching up to connect them in another steamy kiss.

“The grocery list has been completed, you useless dumbass.” Chirped a disembodied voice, and Shiro threw himself in front of Keith, dropping into a fighting stance, ready to protect his new favorite person. “I thought the house was empty…” Shiro whispered, in the loudest whisper of all time.

“It is,” Keith whispered back, cowering behind Shiro for absolutely no reason other than having an excuse to cling to Shiro from behind. “That’s the refrigerator.” Letting Shiro stand up, Keith met Shiro’s bewildered stare with a look of amusement.

“I… must be drunker than I thought… did you just say your refrigerator… talked?” Running hand through his hair, Shiro tried to assess his own level of sobriety.

“It doesn’t shut up actually,” Keith tugged off his shoes and left them abandoned on the floor. Without breaking eye contact, he grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it off over his head. “Did you come here to get acquainted with my appliances? Or with…” In an attempt to look sexy Keith tried to lean on his door, flailing when it opened causing him to tumble backwards.

Tripping over his own feet, Shiro snagged Keith by the waistband of his jeans. His fingers curled around the fabric, his knuckles pressing into Keith’s perfect stomach. Neither of them were able to catch their footing and found themselves falling onto Keith’s bed with a thud.

“Hi,” Keith choked, his chest feeling compressed by the weight of Shiro on top of him. Shifting he managed to wiggle over the bed, yanking Shiro’s shirt off of him as he went.

The bed was soft under Keith’s back and the pillows nestled around his head as he settled into them. Under his fingertips, Shiro’s skin was warm to the touch and the varying textures left Keith feeling mesmerized while he traced lazy shapes over Shiro’s chest. Haziness drifted over his eyes and he felt the tendrils of unconsciousness spreading in his mind.

Landing back between Keith’s thighs without any finesse, Shiro snorted at the quiet “oomph” that huffed from Keith’s chest. Bending to peck soft kisses to Keith’s neck, Shiro couldn’t help the sigh that escaped him, born from the feeling of Keith’s gentle caresses over his skin. Perhaps it was the alcohol that had Shiro unworried about Keith seeing his scars or maybe it was simply the way Keith made him feel. Whatever it was, Shiro let his mind relax, his trail of kisses down Keith’s neck becoming slow and tender.

Shiro’s head was fuzzy now that he was lying down and the gentle way Keith’s breaths were ghosting over his ear began luring him toward sleep. Easing himself onto his side, Shiro let his eyes flutter closed. The last of his conscious thoughts made him smile, realizing how perfectly Keith fit tucked into his chest. With a happy sigh, Shiro let himself slip into unconsciousness.

Outside the wind began to howl bringing with it showers of snow.

Snow which would blanket the city and prevent all travel for the following two days.

Unaware of what they would wake up to, Keith and Shiro passed into dreamless sleep, cuddled half-naked in each other’s arms.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waking up to a frozen world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SO SORRY for the delay in this update! Real life took a turn for the absolute worst. 
> 
> The chapter count has gone up, but delays will no longer be a thing. This fic will update for the next 2 Sundays after this one! 
> 
> I also have some other fics to post now that life will hopefully settle down. 
> 
> If you like it and want to talk Voltron please come find me on Tumblr or Twitter!
> 
> [NeRdLife4Eva Twitter](https://twitter.com/NeRdLife4Eva)   
>  [n3rdlif343va Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/n3rdlif343va)

Hazy dreams danced inside of Shiro’s mind, swimming just beneath the surface of consciousness and tempting him toward the waking world. His body felt heavy with sleep, but relaxed and at ease even as he began to stir. With a quiet moan, he lifted his chin, angling his nose away from the hair tickling his face. The sensation had his eyes flying open, becoming wider as he took in the sight of Keith’s bare back tucked against his bare chest and their legs tangled together underneath a blanket.

It had been Shiro’s intention to sleep with Keith, but instead of the sexual version, he had apparently gone for the more intimate interpretation. Fuzzy memories of shifting from making out to snuggling floated into Shiro’s mind and he smiled softly into the back of Keith’s neck with the way they had easily curled into each other’s space. Awkwardness should have been Shiro’s primary emotion, but he felt himself melting over the way their bodies seamlessly fit together. Shiro had to resist the urge to snuggle closer into Keith’s warmth, a warning tingle in the back of his mind telling him it might be weird to purposely cuddle Keith into his arms now that he was fully aware of his actions. Easing slightly onto his side to put some distance between them, Shiro distracted his wandering mind by assessing his own physical condition.

His head ached, a dull throb behind his eyes that reminded him of all his ill-advised consumption the night before. Unexpectedly, the rest of his body felt languid, a result of the most peaceful night sleep that Shiro could ever remember having. The tension that normally resided in his neck and shoulders had eased away and the sense of urgency Shiro normally awoke with was nowhere to be found. Sleepily, he curled his toes feeling a distinct lack of stiffness throughout his legs. Being snug under a blanket with Keith was like sleeping with a living, breathing heating pad and Shiro sighed at the relaxation flowing through him.

One part of his body refused to let him enjoy his newfound comfort though, making Shiro pout. Cautiously, he slid his arm from underneath the pillow, careful not to jostle Keith as he moved backwards off of the bed lifting the blanket to slip away. His heartrate kicked up as he caught a glance of Keith beneath the blanket’s cover.

At some point in the night, Keith must have removed his tantalizing tight jeans, leaving him adorably unadorned and wearing nothing beyond his briefs and socks. The blanket certainly hadn’t existed when Shiro had rolled over to hold Keith close to his chest, and Shiro felt the little flutter in his stomach at the idea of Keith covering them both. Smile tugging at his lips, Shiro glanced back over his shoulder at Keith’s serenely sleeping form as he tiptoed toward the bathroom.

Clicking the door closed as quietly as possible, Shiro spared only a glance for his reflection in the mirror. Part of his brain was revving up to argue the rationality of sneaking out unnoticed, leaving Keith with the decision as to whether or not he wanted to see Shiro again. The image of Keith’s playful smirk, the feeling of Keith’s lips against his own and the warmth of Keith’s skin burning their places into Shiro’s permanent memories and made his heart ache deep inside of his chest.

They had both fallen asleep (or passed out if he was going to be honest about it) and yet Keith hadn’t asked him to leave even though there was clear evidence that Keith had been awake sometime over the last few hours. And Keith had returned to the bed instead of moving to somewhere else in the house, wearing less clothing than Keith had fallen asleep in. Shiro was convinced that had to mean something and his emotional heart begged his rational head to believe it.

Quickly flushing the toilet and washing his hands, Shiro took another moment to examine his face. His hair was a disaster and there were obvious marks decorating his neck, but the dark circles he had grown accustomed to under his eyes were nowhere to be found. Allura would call it luck that Shiro was left with only mild signs of a potential hangover, but Shiro thought that it might have been cuddling Keith that had warded off the effects of their night out. Smiling at his own sappy thoughts, Shiro dried his hands and slowly opened the bathroom door.

Keith hadn’t moved from his position and Shiro paused next to the bed, admiring the long lean lines of Keith’s body. Unbuttoning his jeans again, Shiro shoved them to the ground before he could lose his nerve. Gently he crawled back onto the bed, pulling the blanket back over his body and settling behind Keith with his arm wrapped around Keith’s waist. When morning finally arrived, they could tackle whatever awkwardness came with it, but for now, Shiro was content to live in the moment. Sleepiness made his eyelids feel heavy and Shiro tucked his chin into Keith’s hair absorbing Keith’s warmth and sighing as he dipped back into dreamland.

* * *

 

Light peeked through the blinds, streaks of piercing pain landing across Keith’s closed eyelids causing him to wince. Shifting to avoid further onslaught, he came face-to-face with the solid muscle of Shiro’s chest.

The reaction was only natural, Keith assured himself, mentally counting backwards from one hundred in an attempt to distract himself from the way Shiro’s thigh slid snuggly between Keith’s legs. Squeezing his eyes shut, Keith tried to muffle his moan when Shiro’s hand trailed up the ridges of his spine, guiding Keith closer to Shiro’s body. The even rise and fall of Shiro’s chest told Keith his bedmate was still asleep and Keith took the opportunity he was given to try to gather his thoughts.

It had been a little after three in the morning when Keith had awoken the first time, mouth dry and legs stiff from sleeping in his jeans. The shock of discovering himself wrapped like an octopus around Shiro’s half-naked body had almost been enough to shake away his remaining drunkenness, but not enough to deter him from returning to the bed and Shiro’s welcoming arms after discarding his pants and acquiring a blanket. Perhaps it was the lingering intoxication that had encouraged him to scoot backwards into Shiro’s arms, but it was his heart that had thudded happily in his chest, causing him to smile into his pillow as he drifted back to sleep.

Without a sound Shiro rolled his hips, jarring Keith higher on his muscular thigh and bringing Keith crashing directly back to reality. At the seam of his own hip, Keith could feel a hard press that was definitely not Shiro’s leg and his own matching arousal wasn’t any easier to disguise. He wasn’t sure when Shiro had shed his own jeans, but the feeling of their only-underwear-covered bodies slotted together in a cocoon of warmth was not helping Keith’s efforts to calm down.

A kiss to the top of Keith’s head had him startling, snapping his head back without releasing Shiro from the hold Keith had around his waist. Sleepy eyes and a drowsy smile were peering down at Keith, making his heart feel like a pile of mush sloshing in his chest. A normal person would have scrambled away, out of politeness, but Keith found himself trapped in Shiro’s gravitational pull.

“Good morning,” Shiro mumbled, using his sleepiness as an excuse to snuggle Keith onto his bicep and bury his face in Keith’s hair. In other relationships, Shiro had hated waking up with hair in his mouth and another person draped over him, but with Keith it felt like the only place he wanted to be. Realizing that his mind had skipped several steps from passing out in the same bed as his blind date to comparing this moment to previous long-term relationships, Shiro squeezed his eyes shut as the heat flared over his face. Pondering if he was still possibly a little drunk, Shiro jumped when a kiss was placed in the center of his chest.

“Morning,” Keith said, his bottom lip immediately being pulled between his teeth as a means to settle his anxiety. His pulse raced as he let his hands wander over Shiro’s back, the blood rushing in his ears as he tried to figure out what to do next. “I-” Whatever words he was going to attempt to speak were interrupted by a shrill ring echoing through the room.

Groaning, Keith untangled himself from Shiro’s body, rolling over and trying not to squeak when Shiro curled around his back. Slapping out at his bedside table, Keith plucked his cell phone from the charger and glared at his alarm, poking it as hard as possible to shut it off.

The red exclamation point at the top of his weather app had him raising an eyebrow. Tapping it with his thumb, Keith abruptly sat up, the blanket pooling around his waist as he gawked at his phone.

Letting his eyes wander over Keith’s back, Shiro couldn’t resist the urge to tap his fingers at the base of Keith’s spine. Phantom thoughts about his hand fitting around most of Keith’s waist had Shiro shifting to avoid further tenting of the blanket. “What’s up?” He yawned, stretching his arms deliberately over his head and not missing Keith’s appreciative gaze over the expanse of his chest.

“Um… I… well…“ Keith’s thoughts wouldn’t connect to each other, half of his brain registering the words _blizzard_ and _city shut down_ while the other half had his tongue ready to lick circles around Shiro’s peaked nipples. Shaking his head once to clear his thoughts, Keith tried to discreetly rearrange himself as he stepped out of the bed.

Crossing the room in several unsteady steps, Keith wrapped his hand around the cord of his blinds, yanking hard and revealing a world covered in white. “Holy fuck…“ Grimacing in response to the glare from the snow, Keith wiped his hand over a panel of glass.

The entire block looked frozen. Snow fell from the sky, but not in the calm way that made the world look soft and romantic. Flakes fell rapidly, like silent bullets reigning down to debilitate all lifeforms in their determined path to the ground. Even with the pain stabbing at his temples, Keith couldn’t tear his eyes away from the scene.

“That is… a whole lot of snow.” Leaning forward, Shiro purposely grazed Keith’s arm with his chest, one hand settling on Keith’s shoulder. “So… um…”

There was absolutely no way Shiro was going to be able to get home. His car was in the bar’s parking lot and despite the short distance, the snow made the world feel as if it ended just outside of Keith’s window. Feeling his heart speed up again, Shiro glanced at Keith’s face, wondering if Keith could sense the anxious rhythm of his heartbeat. He hoped Keith would let him stay and that they would get a chance to properly get to know each other, acknowledging that foolish hope was not really an emotion that Shiro had allowed himself to feel. Turning to look back out at the swirling blizzard, Shiro tried not to think about how lucky he felt over a freak blizzard.

“My app says this is the biggest blizzard in the city’s history.” Turning to look at Shiro’s profile, Keith felt a trickle of relief seeing the lack of apprehension in Shiro’s expression. Shiro almost looked nervously amused at their situation and the pink of his cheeks reached all the way to the tips of his ears, leaving Keith with a funny tickle in his stomach. “I guess we’re lucky Pidge went to the grocery store.” Tentatively, Keith let his hand rest on the small of Shiro’s back, his fingers tingling with the skin to skin contact.

As if waiting for its cue, Shiro’s belly produced an audible growl which made him blush deeper into his hairline. “Guess so,” he agreed weakly, holding a hand over his belly button and praying his body wouldn’t betray him again. “You don’t… mind that you’re stuck with me?” Refusing to look at Keith, Shiro dropped his hand from Keith’s shoulder and moved to look more thoroughly at the snowy curtain dropping in front of them. Fingers curled gently over the forearm of his prosthetic, and Shiro felt his hesitation vanish when he saw the soft smirk on Keith’s beautiful face.

“There is no one I would rather be stuck with.” Following an instinct he didn’t fully understand, Keith eased Shiro to face him, reaching up to brush a kiss to Shiro’s cheek. He dropped his forehead to Shiro’s shoulder and giggled when Shiro’s stomach once again protested its lack of food. “Come on, big guy, I’ll make you some breakfast.” Stepping away from Shiro’s personal bubble, Keith headed for his dresser to scrounge up clothing for both of them, hoping that Hunk’s tendency to leave behind scattered belongings would produce something Shiro could wear.

With a shoulder braced on the frame of the window, Shiro let his eyes follow Keith across the room. He was positive Keith’s clothes weren’t going to fit him, but Shiro couldn’t find the energy to worry about it. Outside, the city had come to a halt, but inside of Keith’s apartment, Shiro felt like his world was just beginning to spin. Catching the sweat pants Keith threw in his direction, Shiro traded smiles with him across the room. He felt nervous and excited, and ready to face whatever the next few days would bring.

Waiting until Shiro had tugged a pair of Hunk’s sweats over his hips, Keith hesitantly offered his hand. His heart did jumping jacks in his chest when Shiro’s fingers found homes between his own, and Keith attempted to hide his blush underneath the curtain of his hair as he led Shiro toward his kitchen.

* * *

 

“Hangover check in 3…2…”

“Oh fuck no,” Keith growled, releasing Shiro’s hand, running full speed toward the kitchen and cleanly vaulting himself over the counter. His hand slammed the mute button on the side of the coffee maker as the first sounds of banging drums and blazing horns began to sound. “Damnit, Pidge,” he cursed, snatching the coffee craft out of the machine and slamming on the water faucet.

Across the room, Shiro stood in stunned silence. He had suspicions about Keith’s grace and strength, between Allura’s details about Keith’s training schedule and Shiro’s own observations of Keith’s movements, but nothing could have prepared him to see Keith spring into action. Every pure thought Shiro had about their situation flew from his brain, and he could only produce thoughts of exactly how that speed and elegant power would translate across Keith’s bed. With his mouth hanging open, Shiro stared at Keith until Keith looked up from his place at the sink.

“What?” Keith asked, eying Shiro carefully. He couldn’t decipher the frozen state Shiro was caught in and it made him feel fidgety. “Sorry, um, yeah, all the kitchen appliances talk. Washer and dryer too. My roommate is ridiculous.” Deciding it would be best to let Shiro process his issue without an audience, Keith deliberately turned his attention to making coffee.

“Right… uh… Smidge was it?” Tripping on his own feet, Shiro caught himself on the back of a chair. Telling himself to get it together, Shiro looked to the ceiling for help while he tried to think about anything other than picking Keith up and dragging him back to bed. A snort from the kitchen gave Shiro a lifeline, and he concentrated on making his way to one of the stools lined up in front of the highest part of the counter. Safely slipping into one, Shiro felt lucky he was already sitting when Keith threw a smile over his shoulder.

“Pidge actually, but I am now calling her Smidge from now on. You called her a smidge of a person and I swear if she didn’t want me to get laid so badly, she would have killed you on the spot.” Panicking as the words left his mouth uncontrolled and unable to be recalled, Keith stared down at the coffee maker as he listened to the distinct sounds of Shiro choking behind him. Screaming into his own head, Keith busied himself with pulling down two coffee mugs, thankful that although Pidge had given the coffee maker an annoying voice, she had also given it an insanely fast brewing speed. Trying to recover from his overshare, he asked, “How do you like your coffee?” without looking in Shiro’s direction.

The words barely made it past Shiro’s ears as he continued to roll Keith’s words around in his mind. Keith’s roommate wanted him to get laid. Keith’s roommate had left last night with what Shiro recalled was a rather stuffed bag hanging over her shoulder. So, by deduction, Keith’s roommate was one hundred percent supportive of Keith getting laid… with Shiro. This information seemed important, even though Shiro wasn’t exactly sure why he thought so and couldn’t really get his brain passed wanting to make it happen.

The sound of Keith clearing his throat had Shiro’s head shooting up and the raise of Keith’s eyebrow made Shiro realize he had missed a question while immersed in his internal meltdown. “Come again?” Shiro asked, flushing red as Keith’s cheeks did the same. Cursing his own word usage, Shiro twirled his index fingers together. “I mean, sorry… I didn’t… hear what you said.” He found it insanely hard to look up from his hands, forcing himself to make eye contact while he swallowed hard against the rising lump in his throat.

“Coffee,” Keith said, holding the mug up and internally groaning about how stupid he looked. “How do you take your coffee?” Congratulating himself on the save, he didn’t notice when he sloshed a bit of liquid from the cup onto the floor.

“Oh, uh, well… usually with almond milk… but if you don’t have it, then black is fine.” Shrugging, Shiro watched Keith place the mug back on the counter and turn toward the fridge.

“I don’t think…” Trailing off, Keith lifted the carton of almond milk from the shelf of his fridge, staring at it in confusion. Neither he nor Pidge had ever purchased almond milk and the carton in his hand was obviously brand new. “Close the door, you’re exposing my goodies!” chimed in the fridge, snapping Keith out of his contemplation. Placing the carton in front of Shiro, Keith turned to retrieve the mugs and sat one in front of Shiro’s hands. “Hey… just humor me… name something else you normally eat or drink that you think I wouldn’t have.”

Panicking, Shiro nearly dropped the milk as he tried to pull the plastic tab. He hadn’t meant to insult Keith or imply that Keith didn’t make healthy eating choices, so he scrambled through his thoughts to come up with the most unhealthy food items he kept stocked in his kitchen. “Double stuffed Oreos and Stouffer’s mac and cheese,” Shiro blurted, upending too much almond milk into his coffee in his haste to get the words out. Confused, he watched Keith spin on his heel and throw open the freezer.

“I got everything you need, in the kitchen anyway,” taunted his freezer, making Keith roll his eyes. Hissing through his teeth as he spotted the box, Keith raised both of his hands to pull the frozen tray of mac and cheese from the freezer. Pidge’s mom swore by the virtues of homemade mac and cheese and therefore they had never dared to buy any form of the frozen variety. In his hands though, Keith held one party tray-sized Stouffer’s mac and cheese.

“Can we have that for breakfast?” Shiro asked before he could stop himself, slapping a hand over his mouth and blushing with embarrassment. His love for mac and cheese apparently obliterated his ability to be anything beyond childlike. His love for Keith bloomed when Keith began to laugh with his head nodding with amusement.

“I was thinking more along the lines of scrambled eggs and toast, but sure we can have this.” His mind was spinning with how adorable Shiro looked, his eyes lighting up at Keith’s enthusiastic consent to the ridiculous idea. Setting the box down on the stove, Keith preheated the oven to the suggested temperature and then narrowed his eyes in the direction of his pantry. Remembering the original reason he had inspected his freezer, Keith stalked toward the pantry door and threw it open.

A stack of three packs of double-stuffed Oreo cookies sat in the midst of their normal grocery supplies. Next to it was a bag of dry stuffing that Keith couldn’t ever remember purchasing. Poking his head out of the pantry, Keith showed the bag to Shiro. “You aren’t perhaps a stuffing fan, are you?”

Sliding out of his seat, Shiro moved to stand behind Keith, poking the bag in his hand. “Dressing, but yeah… definitely… this exact brand too.” Eyebrows shooting up, Shiro leaned over Keith’s shoulder to grab a pack of Oreos. “That’s a lot of Oreos,” he commented, giving Keith’s hip a squeeze before returning to his chair. Happily, Shiro tore open the package and promptly dunked his first Oreo into his coffee.

“We’ve been set up.” Flopping into the chair next to Shiro, Keith reached over Shiro’s arms and into the line of cookies. Purposely, Keith let himself lean further into Shiro than necessary, wanting to return the tease of Shiro’s grip on his hip in the pantry. Pulling back slowly, he dragged his own coffee across the counter and with a shrug dunked his cookie in it.

“I mean… yeah?” Frowning, Shiro chewed his cookie and tried to get his brain back on track after it had derailed from Keith’s contact. He wondered if he would be able to ever string together a proper thought while in Keith’s presence. Peering at Keith’s meticulous drowning of his cookie, Shiro smiled. “Wasn’t being set up the point of us going out last night? Or did I miss something?”

“Let me ask you this.” Twisting in his seat, Keith let his knees fall open, trying to suppress his squeak when Shiro turned and slotted his leg between them. Telling himself to focus, Keith turned his torso toward his coffee. “Did you hear anything about this blizzard?”

“I-” Cocking his head, Shiro tried to recall any news reports he had seen over the past few days. He distinctly remembered Allura surprising him with coffee and pastries yesterday morning and the morning before, ushering him out of the door before he had a chance to watch his normal thirty minutes of the morning news. And their lab had been unusually quiet over the last few days as well, after Allura had claimed that their last few experiments had shorted out the television and the radio. Leaving Keith’s question hanging in the air, Shiro pushed back his chair and stood. “Any idea where my coat ended up?”

Flushing from the memory of shoving Shiro’s coat to the ground, Keith nodded toward the front door. “Possibly… still on the floor… sorry about that,” he added lamely, peeking up at Shiro from his seat.

“No worries, I liked it.” Biting the inside of his cheek, Shiro awkwardly patted Keith’s shoulder. “Just, let me check something?” Moving around the kitchen island, Shiro followed the direction of Keith’s nod and couldn’t help smiling at the trail of shoes and coats they had left in their hasty wake. It was good to know Shiro hadn’t imagined how much Keith had wanted him too.

Squatting to retrieve his abandoned coat, Shiro plucked it from the ground and grabbed Keith’s as well. He kicked their shoes into a pile by the door and hung both coats up on the wall hooks. Flipping open the left side of his own, Shiro patted the hidden pocket and scoffed when he pulled the pillbox from its hiding place.

_“I got it for you,” Allura said proudly, pointing at the small box. “It’s a pill case. Discreet enough to hide and made of plastic so it won’t set off any sort of metal detectors or scanners, but big enough to hold four days of pills. Then you always have a just in case stash… for emergencies.”_

_“Thanks Allura,” Shiro placed the pillbox on his counter, pulling his friend into a grateful hug. “I’m sure it will come in handy.”_

The memory from the previous afternoon flooded Shiro’s mind. Clicking open the lid, Shiro discovered four full days of medication, none of which he had placed inside the box himself. He certainly hadn’t put the pillbox in his own jacket pocket and he suddenly understood Allura’s odd need to spend their afternoon off padding around his condo. Snapping the lid closed with his thumb, Shiro had a sneaking suspicion that Keith was onto something.

Walking back toward the kitchen, Shiro stopped to admire the scrunch of Keith’s eyebrows as he read the instructions on the side of the mac and cheese box. Dimly, Shiro thought that Adam would have never consented to the idea of dinner food for breakfast, but Shiro pushed the thought away and stepped to Keith’s side. “Let me?” he asked, holding out his hand and smiling when Keith grinned up at him.

“Sure thing.” Dropping the box into Shiro’s waiting hand Keith stayed close, unable to convince himself to allow any space between them.

Watching Shiro swiftly free the aluminum pan, Keith nearly knocked his face on the edge of his counter bending to retrieve the needed cooking sheet. Trying to play off his weirdness, Keith shrugged his shoulders in an odd rhythm and noisily yanked the metal sheet from its slotted spot inside his cabinet. Easing it onto the stove top, Keith straightened up and leaned his hip against the counter. “What were you checking anyway?” He had told himself not to ask, but the question slipped out before Keith could stop his curiosity from propelling past his lips.

“Oh…” Shiro took more care than necessary to fold the foil lid in half and steeple it over the pan of cheesy glory. Bending to slide it into the oven, Shiro certainly did not angle his hips in Keith’s direction or spend a little longer than needed getting the sheet in the exact center of the stove’s rack. Finally closing the oven door, Shiro felt a rush of adrenaline over the heated look in Keith’s eyes. “I… um… I think you are right.” Pulling the pillbox from his pants pocket, Shiro realized too late that this piece of information could stir another, possibly more uncomfortable, conversation.

Seeing Keith’s confusion, Shiro sighed. “Yesterday my friend Allura… the one who set me up with you… showed up at my house and gave me this.” Holding the pillbox up with two fingers, Shiro flipped it back and forth. “It holds four days’ worth of my medication and the last time I saw it, it was sitting on my kitchen counter. Somehow… it made it into my coat pocket and is filled.”

It was on the tip of Keith’s tongue to ask why Shiro needed medication, but he quickly noted the shuffle of Shiro’s feet and the way Shiro wouldn’t quite meet Keith’s eyes. He figured they would have at least the next twenty-four hours together and there was no need to make Shiro feel weird about medication that was essential to him in one way or another. Pushing away any questions, Keith pulled his phone from his pocket.

Hitting his first listed speed dial, Keith turned the phone on speaker and held it screen up in his hand so Shiro could see Pidge’s name and robot-icon staring up at both of them. After three rings, she picked up, laughter dancing at the edges of her greeting. “Pidge.” Keith laced every ounce of unspoken warning and threat into the singular word.

Laughter rang through the phone, making both Shiro and Keith jump. Angling his head, Shiro whispered, “there is more than one person there…” Pausing mid-thought, Shiro narrowed his eyes. “Allura? Are you with Pidge?” The increased laughter made Shiro narrow his eyes, aiming an irritated look in Keith’s direction.

Returning Shiro’s deadpan expression with one of his own, Keith shook his phone like he was shaking Pidge instead. “Pidge! Hunk! What the hell?!” In the background, there was a distinctive shout of “don’t forget about me! I helped!” in Lance’s offended voice. “You’re in trouble too!” Keith shouted back, fingers curling his hand around his phone.

“We want what is best for you both.” The voice was calm and diplomatic and the wind in Keith’s sails deflated as soon as he realized Allura had taken over.

“Really, Allura? So I am assuming our lab radio and T.V. aren’t broken?” Shiro wrapped his hand underneath Keith’s to hold the phone steady. “And I suppose you somehow supplied a list of my favorite foods to my unknowing and unwilling host?”

“Unwilling?” Keith hissed, glaring at Shiro. “I’m certain not unwilling. I’m glad you’re here.” Feeling the curl of anger in his stomach, Keith tore his hand away from Shiro’s grasp. Angrily tapping the speaker button, Keith put the phone to his ear as he stomped down the hallway. “Give me Pidge,” he growled, turning the corner and leaning against the wall.

Surprised by Keith’s reaction, Shiro hesitantly followed Keith toward the hallway, pausing when he heard Keith’s voice.

“Of course I like him, Pidge. He’s perfect. He’s funny and sweet, and god he was so cute about the mac and cheese, I almost died. He put Oreos in his coffee, Pidge. OREOS! And then I tried it, because everything he does it irresistible… He is a nerd and called you Smidge and UGH… and… AND it doesn’t help that… I swear… some Greek god is missing his body because Shiro stole it.” Keith dropped his head into his free hand listening to Pidge giggle again. “But he is stuck here with me and he is going to realize how not perfect I am and by the time the plows show up, he is going to run screaming away from me.”

“Oh Keith, shut up!” Pidge yelled in his ear, making Keith pull the phone away. “Look, Shiro isn’t perfect, but you two are perfect for each other so just _enjoy this_. Don’t overthink it. Don’t be Keith about it. Just live a little.” There was a click and dooming silence on the other line before Keith could even think of a proper response. Thunking his head back against the wall, Keith wondered if snowshoeing to Hunk’s house to murder his friends would count as premeditation.

Backing away from the wall, Shiro pressed the heel of his hand to the center of his chest. All the reasons Keith had listed for liking him had been on every list his exes had given for not wanting Shiro as their partner. True, Keith sounded like he was ranting more than praising, but Shiro could feel the truth in the words he had overheard Keith hiss through the phone to Pidge. His eyes stung with brimming tears, wondering if he was even worthy of such a wonderful man.

Thankfully, the vibrations of his phone ringing inside of his own pocket distracted him from the downward spiral inside of his mind. Answering it, he didn’t bother with a greeting as he barked, “Really Allura? All my favorite foods… my meds… and yet you didn’t think about clothing?” Unless there was a bag stashed somewhere in Keith’s house, Shiro was positive that Allura had missed this step in whatever contrived plan she had helped orchestrate.

Her evil cackle didn’t contradict Shiro’s complaint. “To be fair, I was hoping you wouldn’t need them.”

“You expected me to be naked all weekend?!” Shiro gawked, slapping a hand to his forehead.

“I expected you and Keith to spend very little outside of the bedroom and therefore yes, clothing would certainly only be optional at that point.” Allura snickered at her own comment. “He is very attractive, you said so yourself. You two hit it off right?”

Sneaking a glance over his shoulder, Shiro rested his hip against the dining room table. “He’s the hottest man I have ever seen. And he is making mac and cheese… for breakfast.” Shiro knew he sounded too smitten for a man he had met less than twenty-four hours ago, but he couldn’t stop the infatuation from leaking into his words.

“Sounds like husband material,” Allura laughed.

“Husband material,” Shiro agreed, drumming a finger on the table and missing Keith’s reappearance behind him and the subsequent blush which bloomed over Keith’s face.

“Have fun, Shiro. Don’t overthink it.” The knowing intonation behind Allura’s words made Shiro groan. “You have nowhere else to go, so you might as well take advantage of it. Plus you probably owe him a breakfast blow job for the breakfast mac.”

Allura’s laughter filled Shiro’s ear as he squawked, “What is a breakfast blow job?!” A startled sound behind him had Shiro jumping, his phone clattering out of his hand and his legs tangling as he turned to see Keith’s wide eyes staring back at him.

“I… um… Allura…” Taking a step backwards, Shiro stumbled over his own feet, crashing into the closest chair at the end of Keith’s table, sending himself falling backwards toward the ground.

“Shiro!” Shoving his phone in his pocket, Keith reached out to grab Shiro’s hand, getting his feet caught in Shiro’s ankles and losing his balance. He landed with an uncoordinated thud on top of Shiro’s chest, their clasped hands trapped between them.

The moment hung between them, both of their chests rising and falling where they were pressed, cheeks pink with shared embarrassment, and curious eyes taking in each other’s faces. Keith felt a buzzing inside of his brain, an insistent thrumming of possibility that wouldn’t quiet in his mind. “I… well…” Distractedly, he lifted a hand to lightly brush the hair away from Shiro’s forehead.

_Kiss him_ , whispered Shiro’s mind as he leaned into Keith’s touch. Then the words _breakfast blow job_ appeared in blaring red letters at the forefront of his thoughts and he felt his face heat all over again. “So, um, what do you normally do on Saturdays.” Trying to appear causal, Shiro folded one arm under his head, realizing too late how close he had shifted his face to Keith’s hovering above him. He tried not to focus on the way Keith’s eyes darted to his mouth, but Shiro couldn’t deny the quickening pace of his heart.

Acting on impulse, Keith pressed a light kiss to Shiro’s lips. He pulled back to keep himself from taking it any deeper, feeling a tug in his heart and his groin at the way Shiro’s eyes had fallen closed. For a moment, Keith considered moving back to kiss Shiro again but the sound of the oven timer had his head shooting up. Regrettably unfolding himself from where he was tucked over Shiro’s body, Keith stood and offered Shiro a hand. “How about mac and cheese while I answer your question?”

Letting himself be guided to his feet, Shiro didn’t hold himself back from wrapping an arm around Keith’s waist. Stealing his own kiss, Shiro smiled at the way Keith grinned into it. “You had me at mac and cheese, baby.”

Nearly collapsing from his weakened knees at the sound of the pet name, Keith told himself to get a grip. _Don’t overthink it_ , Pidge had said and Keith was determined to follow her suggestion, no matter how hard it seemed. He would survive getting them both fed and hope they would continue to function in the easy rhythm they had found with each other. If Shiro’s soft smile was any indication, he seemed to be hoping for something similar.

Tugging Shiro back into the kitchen, Keith gave him instructions on where to find plates and silverware. They moved side by side, exchanging smiles and making small talk. For reasons he couldn’t pinpoint, Keith felt a thread of hope weaving inside of his mind.

There was no telling how awkward the hours and days stretched before them were going to be, but Keith’s heart stupidly decided that maybe, just this once, the universe was on his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please consider checking out my other [Sheith fics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdlife4eva/works?fandom_id=10104017)! And I will be adding to the list over the next couple of weeks as well! 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading this story!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of real life catches up to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, after the flu and the holidays and writing through other deadlines, I am finally getting this story updated! I will post the final chapter this weekend (it is an epilogue chapter and super cute! I hope you'll like it!) 
> 
> Also, I fulfilled two other prompts for the [Sheith Prompt Party](https://sheithpromptparty.tumblr.com) on Tumblr!   
> The first is a Rock Star Keith/Bar Owner Shiro AU called [I found you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17614625/chapters/41527277)  
> The second is a Cat Cafe AU called [Creature Comforts](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17626040/chapters/41557784)
> 
> As always, please consider finding me on Tumblr or Twitter to discuss all things Voltron and Sheith!   
> [NeRdLife4Eva Twitter](https://twitter.com/NeRdLife4Eva)  
> [n3rdlif343va Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/n3rdlif343va)

At some point over the hours of their shared Saturday, Shiro began to wonder if this was all real.

Maybe he had died at some point in the night and this was his version of heaven. Maybe his real body was lying frozen somewhere or trapped in another plane of existence, leaving Shiro to exist inside of a dream world that looked very much like the inside of Keith’s house. With Keith. Who was undeniably the most adorable, sexiest, smartest and easiest to be around person Shiro had ever met. Keith was like every one of Shiro’s dreams rolled into one stunning package and it simply didn’t make sense that Shiro deserved any of it. This had to be some sort of alternate reality or a dream. Logically, it was the only explanation Shiro had for why every step, even the clumsy ones, felt perfect.

During breakfast, Keith set the entire tray of mac and cheese between them and encouraged Shiro to eat as much as he wanted. No comments about calories or making up for the meal at the gym. Keith simply slid the tray onto a braided pad designed to protect the counter from the heat of the pan and told Shiro to dig in. Grinning, Shiro grabbed the spoon and loaded his plate excitedly with his cheesy meal.

Despite his deceivingly slender frame, Keith piled his plate higher with cheesy noodles than Shiro had, humming an unfamiliar tune while he did so. Then Keith added to his pile by shaking bacon bits like pork confetti over his plate. He offered the bottle to Shiro with a crooked smile and Shiro nearly dropped to one knee on the spot.

Sharing a meal with Keith was ridiculously comforting. Even though Shiro was only been sporting a pair of sweatpants and Keith seemed unhurried to dress himself further than that as well, they acted as if their partial nudity was a comfortable state that had been years in the making. Their conversation floated from Keith’s job (including Keith’s promise to show Shiro the online platform for his classes) to Shiro’s reading obsession. Nodding toward a bookshelf stuffed with books, Keith told Shiro he could take his pick of the paperbacks and hardcovers stowed there.

After they had eaten their fill, they washed the dishes together, laughing and flicking water at each other as they worked. It was playful and full of silliness, leaving Shiro’s cheeks hurting from the amount of smiling he was doing. When everything was put away and the remaining mac and cheese was stored safely in the fridge, Keith suggested a tour of the rest of the house. Shiro happily accepted, already ready to follow Keith wherever he wanted to go.

Including, apparently, the top floor of Keith’s house, where Pidge had taken down the majority of the walls (minus those around her bathroom) and replaced them with parts that Shiro struggled to identify. He noted the odds and ends of several computers and a large amount of metal wire, but there were multiple piles and stacks of different materials that were seemingly random in the otherwise organized space. When asked about it, Keith merely laughed and said that Pidge did what she wanted to do and letting her redesign the space kept her robot parts out of the garage.

Still letting the words _robot parts_ circle in his mind, Shiro had followed Keith down to the next floor, peeking behind open doors to reveal another bedroom, a small office looking space, and a room filled with various workout equipment. “Feel free to use any of it,” Keith shrugged, waving first toward the office and then toward the work out room. Shiro noticed that Keith didn’t motion toward the guest room and his heart did a funny little tap dance in his chest.

Following Keith further down, they passed the floor on which they had spent all of their time so far, winding down a smaller staircase toward Keith’s garage. Inside revealed a sleek motorcycle, polished to a gleam and a small compact car that appeared to receive the same loving care. It was sweet how much Keith seemed to value his space and his belongings and Shiro couldn’t help wondering if Keith translated that same level of care to everything (and _everyone_ ) in his life.

The chill of the garage made Shiro shiver in his mostly undressed state and Keith immediately ushered him back inside with a worried look. Before Shiro had the chance to ask, Keith caught him off guard by offering the use of his shower to warm up. When Shiro gladly accepted the offer, it had been Keith that had laced their fingers together to lead Shiro back up the stairs.

Nearly tripping on the top stair due to the mesmerizing sight of his hand perfectly tangled with Keith’s fingers, Shiro nervously laughed when he caught himself on the back of Keith’s leg. The leg muscles flexing under the squeeze of Shiro’s grip had his mouth watering. Not begrudging Keith’s playful need to laugh at Shiro’s clumsiness, he dropped his hand to his side and smiled sheepishly as Keith turned to look at him. Knocked sideways by how gorgeous Keith looked in the low light of the basement stairs, Shiro almost fell over again in his distraction. If Keith noticed, he didn’t say anything, and for that Shiro was eternally grateful.

Appreciating the moment of solitude the shower provided, Shiro took his time scrubbing his hair and using Keith’s soap to clean his body. Vaguely, he’d thought about the way Keith’s bath products smelled against his skin and felt his cheeks burn brightly with his thoughts. Sticking his head straight under the faucet, Shiro said silent prayers that it would be enough to calm his relentlessly raging hormones.

Keith took his turn in the shower next, leaving Shiro to pad through the living room of Keith’s house. While anywhere else Shiro would have felt awkward, he didn’t have even a hint of the emotion as he made his way through Keith’s living room. The nagging part of Shiro’s brain told him this situation should be weird, but the loudest portion of his thoughts sounded distinctly like Allura telling the rest of his doubtful brain to kindly shut up.

Intrigued by the stuffed shelves of Keith’s bookcase, Shiro ran his fingers along the spines of the well-loved books. It was rare nowadays to discover another bookworm in this age of instant media, and Shiro smiled at the discovery of something else they had in common.

Selecting a book he had been meaning to read, Shiro tucked himself in the corner of the couch, throwing his legs out over the rest of the cushions. A soft blanket was temptingly draped over the back of worn couch and Shiro tugged it down to wrap over his legs. He sighed softly, letting his head fall back and cracking open the book in his hands. Absently he fiddled with the strings of the hoodie Keith had located for him, losing himself to the words on the page.

Standing in his bedroom doorway, Keith let himself admire Shiro’s rapt attention on one of Keith’s favorite books. An adorable crease appeared between Shiro’s eyebrows when he concentrated and Keith found himself wanting to kiss it.

In truth, he had spent most of their hours together resisting the urge to kiss Shiro at every moment. Cheese smeared on Shiro’s lower lip had been Keith’s first temptation, then the suds freckling Shiro’s cheeks as they had washed the dishes. Shiro’s laugh at Pidge’s mess and then the adorable shiver that had shaken Shiro’s entire body in the garage. The moment on the stairs had almost snapped all of Keith’s ability to be a non-creepy host, the feeling of Shiro’s hand wrapped nearly the entire circumference of Keith’s leg had made Keith want to be taken in the middle of his own stairwell.

Separate showers had been a necessary distraction, giving Keith a chance to make his bed and properly assess the weather outside. Snow continued to pour from the sky, falling with a single-minded purpose of freezing the world into stillness. While beautiful, it was also overwhelming and left Keith considering how long Shiro would be forced to share his space.

Keith _wanted_ Shiro in his space. Shiro with his easy laugh and bright smile, with his warms hands and goofy sense of humor, and with a general presence that Keith could only summarize as perfect. In a way that Keith couldn’t understand, he felt completely at home with Shiro in his orbit and that absolutely terrified him.

Reciting Pidge’s advice like a mantra in his mind, Keith made his way back to the kitchen to brew a pot of tea. He considered hot chocolate, but figured maybe he could convince Shiro to drink it later by a fire once the afternoon sunlight began to fade. Considering the potentially romantic and intimate implications of drinking cocoa in front of a fireplace, Keith felt the warmth wash over him. Wiping a hand down his face, Keith told himself to play it cool.

Carefully holding two mugs of steaming tea, Keith made his way back to the living room, leaning over the couch to catch Shiro’s attention. “Tea?”

“Hmm?” Shiro responded, pulling his eyes from his book and looking up at Keith. His hair was still damp from the shower and his cheeks were flushed from the heat. Struck again by how beautiful Keith truly was, Shiro raised his eyebrows in response to Keith’s silence.

_God he is so cute,_ Keith’s thoughts stumbled over each other, unable to construct a response. The burn of the hot mug against his knuckles brought him back to reality. “Tea? I can get honey if you want it…”

Carefully closing the book after mentally noting his page number, Shiro smiled as he accepted the warm mug. He sighed as the steam rolled over his chin, inhaling the sweet scent of mango. “Thank you,” he hummed, shifting when he noticed Keith’s intentions to sit on the couch.

“Don’t put them down.” Carefully lifting Shiro’s legs ( _Shiro’s perfect and strong legs_ , his mind supplied), Keith eased himself on the couch and laid Shiro’s feet in his lap. Holding his cup with one hand, Keith brought the other to the arch of Shiro’s foot and pressed.

“ _Holymotherofmygoodgravythatfeelslikeheaven_ …” Melting into the couch, Shiro didn’t even know what words had come out of his mouth, the tension he didn’t even know existed in his body instantly dissolving as Keith continued to work over his foot. “How… what… _ohhhhmmyyygawwwdddd_ …”

Snickering over the lip of his mug, Keith continued his pursuit of all of Shiro’s pressure points. “My mom taught me. She was a cop, my dad was a firefighter so they spent a lot of time on their feet. They used to say my skinny kid fingers were the best medicine for insistent foot pain.” Curling his index finger, Keith pressed it under the pad of Shiro’s foot and bit back his smile as Shiro moaned again. He shouldn’t admit to loving the noises Shiro was making, but he _loved_ the noises Shiro was making.

Conversation… Shiro needed to participate in the conversation. All he could do was focus on whatever magic Keith was performing on his feet and it took all of his strength to pull his brain back out of the haze Keith had drowned it in. “You said was… are they… dead?” The moan that slipped from Shiro’s lips when Keith shifted to his other foot should have been embarrassing, but Shiro felt too relaxed to care.

“What? No,” Keith shook his head with an amused snort. “They are retired. And off exploring the world.” Sneaking a peek at Shiro, Keith’s smile became even fonder spying the way Shiro’s eyes were fluttering shut. Shiro seemed like the kind of man who didn’t give into the comfort of letting someone else care for him and Keith felt a small thrill of happiness that Shiro was so willing to succumb to the simple allure of a foot rub. Shifting the position of his hand, Keith began to work over the top of Shiro’s foot, massaging the tendons there as he continued.

“They are ridiculously in love and spending all of their well-earned retirement celebrating that fact in every remote corner they can land on. They call every week though, to check in, see how I’m doing and contemplate why I haven’t found love yet. They seem to have forgotten that they raised a son who is barely likeable, let alone lovable.” The thought was out before Keith could stop it, his eyes dropping to stare terrified at Shiro’s foot. His words were an embarrassing mixture of oversharing and unintentional fishing, leaving Keith’s tongue feeling swollen with regret inside of his mouth.

Disbelief smacked Shiro’s mind out of the puddle of relaxed mush that Keith had made it. Carefully withdrawing his feet from Keith’s lap, Shiro grabbed Keith by the shoulder. “Why the hell would you think you’re unlikeable? Or unlovable?” Dipping his head Shiro angled to find Keith’s eyes where they were hiding behind his bangs. “I’m not ever comfortable with people. Maybe I once was… but now I fake it more than anything… With you though…” Biting his lip, Shiro took a chance on gently brushing the bangs from Keith’s face. “There’s no faking, Keith. You’re the most likeable person I’ve ever met.”

“Uh… um… thanks…” Keith stuttered, eyes flicking upwards and discovering how close Shiro was. His breath hitched as he examined the earnest look in Shiro’s eyes feeling the heat flood his chest as his hand unconsciously came up to touch Shiro’s cheek.

The distance was almost too easy to close. Shiro hadn’t asked a million annoying questions about his parents and he hadn’t said any of the mundane useless reassurances that he was used to hearing about Keith eventually finding love. Instead, Shiro had slashed through Keith’s insecurities like a sharp blade through delicate silk, making Keith believe his words without effort. Drawn to the beauty of Shiro, both inside and out, Keith couldn’t stop himself from tipping his chin, a simple test to see if Shiro’s desires matched his own. His eyes closed as Shiro tilted to meet him, the world dissolving into nothing more the sensation of their kiss.

If asked later, Shiro would swear that his intentions had been innocent. A gentle kiss, another chance to see if the fire between them burned as brightly as it had the night before, not a demand for anything more. But when the tension in his thighs caused him to shift them on the couch, his free hand moved with a mind of its own, pulling Keith onto his lap and deepening the kiss with heated passion.

Tea sloshed over Keith’s hand and he quickly reached behind Shiro to place his mug on the thin table behind the couch. Blindly, he groped for Shiro’s mug, ignoring the tea which splashed onto his couch cushions in favor of rocking downward onto Shiro’s lap. The moan that rolled from deep inside of Shiro’s chest had Keith nearly dropping the mug as he pulled it from Shiro’s hand.

_Slow down_ , Shiro tried to tell himself, both hands finding their way onto Keith’s body. As it had the night before, Shiro’s mind quickly slipped into a pile of lust-created goo when he realized how much of Keith’s hip was covered by his hand. Tangling his other hand into Keith’s hair, Shiro delighted at the soft dampness he found there and let himself curl his fingers tighter into the strands.

Common sense told Keith to take a breath, to pull away from Shiro for a moment and allow them both to think about their next steps. Maybe they should talk because as much as Keith’s body wanted Shiro’s touch all over him, his heart wanted the connection just as much. Then Shiro’s hand flexed over Keith’s hip and his mind lost all traces of sensible thought. Trailing a hand down Shiro’s side, Keith snuck his fingers under the hoodie’s hem, sighing at the warmth of Shiro’s skin beneath his fingertips.

“Ke…kee..ith,” Shiro stuttered, head dropping back as Keith began to kiss his way down Shiro’s neck. The weight of Keith sitting heavily over his lap made Shiro’s body ache with desire, his fingers boldly breaching the waistband of Keith’s sweats to discover Keith’s lack of underwear. Feeling himself grow achingly aroused, Shiro slid his hand further down to finally palm the beautiful curve of Keith’s ass.

“Bedroom,” Keith murmured, biting Shiro’s earlobe. Later, he could overanalyze and freak out about the very sober decision he was making. Right now, Keith couldn’t form any thought beyond his desperate need to feel Shiro in every way.

Feeling brave, Shiro hooked his hands under Keith’s thighs and pushed himself from the couch. Misjudging the weight balance, he felt himself stumble, an embarrassing squeak erupting from him as he lost his footing and they went plummeting to the ground. Rolling at the last second, Shiro took the brunt of the fall, Keith landing on top of him with a dull thud.

For a moment, they both stared at each other in shock, before laughter exploded between them. “Why do we keep ending up on the floor?” Keith wheezed, letting his head drop to Shiro’s chest and telling himself to ignore Shiro’s erection still pressing prominently at the seam of his groin.

“We’re a bit of a disaster,” Shiro agreed through his laughter, tilting his chin toward his chest and wrapping his arms around Keith’s shoulders. “In my defense, I thought it would be… hot… or romantic… something along those lines.” He snorted when Keith shook his head, the fond smile on Keith’s face doing unexplainable damage to Shiro’s already hammering heart.

“You’re hot,” Keith teased, easing himself to straddle Shiro and smile playfully down at him. “Even though I am going to have the strangest bruises by the time the plows finally dig us out.” Slipping his hands under the fabric of Shiro’s hoodie, Keith lightly scratched his nails over Shiro’s abdomen. His smile tipped into something wicked when Shiro’s hips pitched upward against his own. Curving over Shiro’s chest, Keith lightly ran his tongue over Shiro’s ear. “Race you to the bedroom,” he taunted, springing up from the ground and hopping over his coffee table.

Scrambling up, Shiro found himself laughing again as he chased Keith across the room. Throwing his arm forward, he caught Keith by the back of his t-shirt and yanked him backwards. Wrapping his arms around Keith’s waist, Shiro lifted him off the ground, laughing harder when Keith squealed as Shiro carried him toward the bed.

“Don’t trip again!” Keith warned, his hands having nowhere to go with the way Shiro was carrying him. With a breathless laugh, Keith found himself being tossed toward the bed, bouncing as Shiro jokingly growled and leapt toward him. “Gonna give me more bruises I can’t explain?” Keith teased, lightly wrapping his arms around Shiro’s shoulders and tilting his chin to catch Shiro in another kiss.

“You can bet on it,” Shiro promised, letting himself fall into his desire for Keith as they rolled together over the bed.

* * *

 

Tucked under the weight of Keith’s blankets, Shiro smiled at the ceiling while his fingers played in the loose strands of Keith’s hair. They were both still naked, too lazy to move from the bed and pretending that the shirt Keith had used to clean them both up wasn’t going to need to be burned later. The sensation of Keith’s breath floating over Shiro’s cooling skin made him shiver and snuggle further into Keith’s embrace to savor the remaining heat between them.

“You’re incredible,” Keith sighed, wincing when he realized that his thought had slipped from his mind and out of his mouth. Burrowing his head into Shiro’s bare chest, he felt Shiro’s chuckle rumble.

“You know… people tell me I have too much baggage.” Lifting his prosthetic arm toward the ceiling, Shiro opened and closed his fist. “Apparently, I am too complicated to love.” Saying his ex’s words out loud left a bitter taste in his mouth, but Shiro wanted to share them with Keith. It wasn’t that he wanted Keith to argue with the assessment, instead Shiro felt like he needed to give Keith an out before he fell any harder.

Feeling a flare of anger ignite in his chest, Keith sat up to stare down at Shiro. “This,” Keith reached out to grab Shiro’s metal hand to guide it to his lips, “this is not baggage. It is part of you. And _all_ of you is incredible.” He loved the way the blushed pink spread over Shiro’s cheeks, and it made Keith want to share every thought in his mind. “You’re brilliant, and funny, and your love of mac and cheese is so endearing I’m almost a little jealous.” Grinning when Shiro hesitantly chuckled, Keith started a trail of kisses from his metal palm down his arm. “I don’t know what happened, but if you give me a chance, I would like to.”

“I’m sick,” Shiro blurted. Allura always said that he had a self-destructive streak and the minute the words were out of his mouth, Shiro knew she was right. Watching with dread as Keith paused in his gentle affection, Shiro decided it was better to do this now. If Keith rejected him, then he would have the beautiful memory of the short time they had hidden from the world and maybe by the time he had hiked his way home in the remaining hours of the blizzard, he would be able to accept that being alone was his fate.

Taking a shaky breath, Shiro pulled his hand away from Keith’s and sat up with his back leaning on the headboard. Folding his hands in his lap, Shiro barely repressed his flinch when Keith’s hand covered his own. “I was diagnosed a few years ago. The real name of the disease is long and scientific. It is exceedingly rare and the reason for this stunning piece of modern technology.” Nodding at his arm, Shiro remembered the day his team of doctors told him that removing his arm was his best chance for survival. “I take medicine, it’s more preventive now, but no one can make me promises that my remission will last forever. I can’t promise you… anything really. Time… easy and carefree fun… I… can’t…” The words caught in the back of his throat and when he heard Keith whisper his name, Shiro decided he didn’t want to see the pity in Keith’s eyes.

Grabbing the edge of the blankets, Shiro pulled them away, dropping his legs to the floor and grabbing for his borrowed sweatpants. Shoving his feet through them, he could barely hear the words Keith was saying through the emotional fog rolling into his mind. Stumbling, Shiro threw himself into the bathroom, shoving the door closed and clicking the lock before crumpling onto the ground with his head in his hands.

Stunned, Keith sat in the middle of the bed, his mouth hanging slightly open. His attempts to reassure Shiro had seemingly fallen on deaf ears and his heart ached painfully in his chest. He didn’t care that Shiro was sick and he didn’t give a single fuck about promises of time or fun or any of the other nonsense Shiro had thrown at him. What Keith wanted was Shiro, scars, prosthetic, illness and all. They had known each other for less than twenty-four hours, but Keith was already positive that he would fight the whole world for Shiro’s happiness.

Yet, he couldn’t even convince himself to move from the bed. He had no idea what Shiro needed and he could feel the distress building inside of him as tears welled in his eyes. Fumbling for his phone, he used the heel of his hand to harshly brush away his tears, shooting off a slightly incoherent text to Pidge.

“Talk to him,” came her almost instant answer.

“I want to. I want to tell him that it’s ok. Can’t though. He locked himself in the bathroom.” Keith texted back, eyes lingering on the closed bathroom door and ears tuned to any sound that might escape from behind it. Briefly he contemplated taking the door off of the hinges, immediately berating himself for such an aggressive thought.

“Remember when I got rejected for that grant? Do that.” Keith softened at Pidge’s response, remembering the night he had come home to find her barricaded in her bathroom and all the gin in the house missing. He had sat for hours outside of that locked door, talking more than he ever had in his life waiting for her to come out to him. When she had emerged, Keith had been waiting with a gallon of water, a warm hug, and the menu for Pidge’s favorite takeout place. They had spent the rest of the night eating way too much junk food and throwing darts at the pictures Keith had printed of the grant committee. The vibration of his phone made Keith look down, and his heart became even softer at Pidge’s last text. “Just be YOU.”

“Thanks, P.” Throwing his phone onto the bed, Keith located his own sweats and gingerly pulled them on. His body was already starting to ache from having the best sex of his life and Keith wished he could rewind the day by an hour to return to the moment when he was positive the world was perfect.

Biting his bottom lip, Keith crossed the room and sank to the floor in front of his bathroom door.

“When I was little my parents used to tell the story of how they first met.” Keith pulled his knees to his chest, ready to tell his favorite story. Talking wasn’t his best skill, but if it worked for Pidge hopefully he could make it work for Shiro. “My mom was training with swat and their helicopter malfunctioned. After shoving her parachute onto the pilot’s back and shoving him out with the rest of the team, she took the controls of the falling aircraft and prepared herself for the crash.” Although it had happened years before Keith was born, he had heard every detail so often that he could picture it as if he had lived the event himself.

“My dad was part of the responding team. He says that the fire bursting from the helicopter was the hottest he had ever felt, but he felt an undeniable need to rescue the pilot. To this day, he still claims it was fate that made him stupid and fate that brought him to my mom’s aid.” Thirty years together and Keith’s dad still teared up every time he discussed pulling his mom from the wreckage, barely alive and bleeding from deep lacerations to her face. “He swears that even battered and unconscious my mom was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and braver than anyone he had ever met. Which according to him is really saying something since he spent his life running into burning buildings with his team.”

Leaning his back on the edge of Keith’s tub, Shiro let himself get lost in Keith’s words, the storm inside of his mind settling to a low rumble while he wondered what Keith’s point was. Silently, he waited for Keith to continue, breathing steadily in through his nose and out through his mouth.

Picking at the small hole in the knee of his sweatpants, Keith smiled softly. “Mom was unconscious for two days, but when she woke up, my dad was the first person to visit her. He brought her a bouquet of flowers that she was allergic to and she spent her first waking moments violently sneezing and scaring the crap out of him.” He heard the sound of Shiro’s quiet chuckle and felt his shoulders relax just a little.

“Something people don’t know about my parents though,” Keith raised his voice, not waiting for any acknowledgement from Shiro before he continued. “They both have pretty severe PTSD. I guess it is expected with their careers and all, but both of them suffered for a long time with some painful symptoms. After one particularly bad fire, arson originated which killed almost an entire factory’s worth of people, my dad started drinking.” The lump in Keith’s throat burned, but he knew that this was the most important part of the story he wanted to tell.

“I was young then, like fourteen or fifteen, and I was so confused. He wasn’t a violent drunk or anything, but even a sullen and silent drunk can be terrifying.” The memory of his father, dressed in the same clothes for a third day, slumped over on their couch with an empty bottle dangling from his fingertips seared excruciatingly in Keith’s mind. “I remember kids at school talking about the fire. Saying that the police should have been able to stop it and that the firefighters gave up and let the people die. I got in a lot of fights over it.”

“Understandable,” Shiro said, the first word he had spoken since he had fled from Keith’s bed. His mind had slowly cleared, his heart returning to a more peaceful rhythm when he realized that Keith wasn’t running from him. Sliding further down on the floor, Shiro rested his head on the edge of the tub and listened to Keith’s voice.

“My mom didn’t give up on him though. She dragged him to counseling, they joined a support group. They took up sparring, which was interesting, especially when I would come home to them throwing each other around in the backyard.” Snickering at the mental image of his mom flipping his dad over her back, Keith let his head fall back against the wall. “They always laughed at people who said they fell in love too fast because according to them, you never stop falling in love. That every time they went through something hard, something that would break anyone else, they fell in love again with the people they became through the struggle.”

Tears gathered in Shiro’s eyes, his bottom lip quivering as Keith’s word sank in. Telling potential partners about his illness had always been his way of slamming the door on happiness, a way to keep people at bay, perfected by the experiences of being painfully rejected by the one person who should have stuck by him. Yet, sitting on the other side of the bathroom door was a man who seemed unwilling to let Shiro off that easy. The emotions swelled in his chest as Shiro wondered if maybe he really had found someone who wouldn’t give up on him.

Twisting, Keith laid his open palm on the bathroom door and pressed his forehead to the cool wood. “We haven’t known each other for that long… I mean… it’s been like a day… but Shiro… I think we have something. And not just because the sex was insane and not just because you make me laugh, but it’s more than that. It doesn’t have to be perfect, hell knows I’m not perfect. If you ask Pidge, I’m the biggest pain in the ass who ever lived. But I don’t need promises. Maybe… we could… I don’t know… just give us a chance.”

For a moment, Shiro remained frozen, blurry eyes trained on the light in the middle of the bathroom’s ceiling. In the back of his mind, Allura’s words from the day before floated around. At the time, Shiro hadn’t believed her, he refused to think that a perfect match was a possibility, especially for someone as broken as him. Yet, from the first second Shiro had laid eyes on Keith (albeit slightly tipsy eyes), he had felt a shift inside of his own heart. Love at first sight was a ridiculous notion Shiro told himself, except neither his heart nor his brain were on board with the argument. Maybe there was truth to Keith’s parents’ wisdom, maybe falling in love wasn’t a one-time ordeal.

Turning his head, Shiro peered at the closed door wondering how easy it would be to unlock it and let Keith in. Not just into the room, but into his life and his heart.

Silence rang in Keith’s ears as he waited. It had been easier when it was Pidge behind the door. Keith’s determination to talk until she started to listen had been fueled by worry but also by the knowledge that even if he was annoying her, she would find a way to forgive him for it. With Shiro, Keith realized that no matter how much time they had spent talking and getting to know each other, it had still been less than a day since they had been shoved in each other’s lives. His father’s words came back to him, the concept of fate and faith weaving around Keith’s heart and giving him the strength to be patient even as the silence felt like it would strangle him.

The click of the lock had Keith sitting back, hopeful eyes trained on the door as he swung to his feet. In front of him, Shiro looked hesitant, the evidence of tears glistening on his cheeks as he finally met Keith’s eyes.

“Hey,” Shiro shrugged, hands swinging uselessly at his sides. “I… Keith…” The words were lost to him, the sight of Keith looking equally as emotional tripping up his carefully crafted response. “I really am a disaster.” Sheepishly, he tried to smile, a small laugh escaping him when Keith dragged him forward into a hard hug. Lifting his hands, Shiro wrapped them around Keith’s back and buried his face in the fluff of Keith’s hair.

“Me too.” Speaking into the muscle of Shiro’s chest, Keith spread his hands to press his palms flat on Shiro’s bare back. “But maybe… we can be disasters together.” He heard the hitch in his own voice and bit his bottom lip.

“I’d like that.” Shiro pulled back, slipping his fingers under Keith’s chin to tilt his face up. Smiling at the beauty of Keith’s flushed cheeks and the sincerity in Keith’s eyes, Shiro felt the doubt melting away. “I want to hear more about your parents.”

“And I want the address of anyone who ever said you were too complicated to love.” Keith joined in Shiro’s laughter, pushing up on his toes to kiss Shiro firmly on his cheek. “First though, how about we make a blanket fort in the living room and light up the fireplace? I’m pretty sure I have some hot chocolate too.”

“I’d love that,” Shiro grinned, leaning down to kiss Keith again, running his hands down Keith’s arms to link their fingers together. “I’m really glad it snowed.” Resting his forehead on Keith’s shoulder, Shiro felt a shiver run down his spine when Keith pecked light kisses to his neck.

“Who knew a blizzard could be such a good thing?” Pulling back, Keith turned toward the door and tugged Shiro with him. “Ready to construct the best pillow fort ever?”

Feeling in his heart that Shiro would always be ready for any adventure, small or big, that Keith proposed he nodded. “Lead the way.”

Hours later when the snow had finally stopped falling and the embers in the fire place were crackling peacefully in front of their feet, Keith and Shiro lay tangled underneath the drooping walls of their blanket fort whispering all the things they couldn’t wait to do together when the world eventually melted.

For now, they were content to hide away, surrounded in their own budding love and cherishing every moment they got to spend slowly discovering every disastrously wonderful part of each other.


	4. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three years later, Keith and Shiro find themselves snowed in again.
> 
> This time it's on purpose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is always a little surreal to finish a story, knowing that you have to leave the world you have invested in behind. I really hope that anyone who took the time to read this enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. 
> 
> If you liked it, please consider checking out my other [Sheith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdlife4eva/works?fandom_id=10104017) works! 
> 
> Thank you for every comment, kudos, and ounce of encouragement you have provided this story!!!

_Clink. Clink. Clink._

The steady stream of exuberant voices settled as the spoon edge clinked against Pidge’s champagne glass, eyes and bodies turning to face her where she stood smirking.

“Oh no,” Keith whispered, turning a pout in Shiro’s direction when he felt Shiro’s hand squeeze gently where it was resting on Keith’s thigh. The pink of Shiro’s alcohol-tinted cheeks and the brightness of his happiness-induced smile made Keith’s heart jump elatedly in his chest, almost giving him the strength to survive whatever Pidge was about to say. Almost.

Foolishly, Keith had thought they would escape this traditional part of the celebration. He hoped that just maybe his best person would choose to spare him the embarrassment of a speech in front of all their friends and family, a false sense of hope only bolstered by Pidge’s silence following Allura’s speech the night before. Asking Pidge to stand next to him on the happiest day of his life had been a no brainer, a decision he would have considered more carefully if he had properly anticipated the way she would be smiling now, the glee of mischief sparkling in her eyes.

“Hey, I think everyone knows me, but on the off chance that you don’t, I’m Pidge. Keith’s roommate, best person, and the reason we are here today.” Around them everyone chuckled and Keith gladly accepted the open palm Shiro offered him, tangling their fingers together and praying Pidge would keep it PG. Steeling himself for whatever came next, Keith bravely looked at his best friend.

“Three years ago, the biggest blizzard in our city’s history brought down nearly six feet of snow on the night of these two’s first date… Luckily that date had gone… very well,” Pidge wiggled her eyebrows in Keith’s direction and he felt the heat flush over his cheeks. “Five days later when I finally made it home, I discovered these two, in the lamest excuse of a blanket fort _ever_ , all of the mac and cheese and Oreos in the house completely devoured, and absolutely head over heels in love with each other.” Gleefully absorbing the laughs she was getting, Pidge paused for what could only be dramatic emphasis.

“Over the past few years, we all thought that maybe the honeymoon phase would die down. That these two lovable idiots would stop mooning over each other at every moment and stop being the purest definition of love that any of us have ever witnessed. Also, that maybe they could keep it in their pants long enough for innocent people to stop walking in and having their eyes violated by the sight of them.” The smile on Pidge’s face grew wider when Shiro slapped a hand to his face and Keith mouthed “I’m going to kill you.”

“But in all seriousness…” Pidge continued pausing to slap Lance across the shoulder when Keith heard him whisper “that’s never a thing.” Rolling her eyes, Pidge continued. “It is ridiculously _cheesy_ that they have dragged us all here, to the top of this mountain resort, to all be snowed in for the weekend of their wedding… but it is also so _them_. Together, they have found the type of love that makes their sentimental sides shine, even Keith, who I was positive would only ever love our coffee maker until Shiro came along.” Keith couldn’t help his snicker when Pidge stuck her tongue out at him with a wink.

“Shiro…” When Pidge turned to face him, Shiro felt the lump gather in his throat. “Thank you for coming into Keith’s life. Thank you for proving him wrong about all the stupid notions he had about himself. Thank you for loving my best friend and letting him love you in return. There is no one like Keith in this world, but he would never listen to me. I’m so happy he listens to you though.”

Tears caught in the corners of Shiro’s eyes and he chuckled when Keith swiped them away with his thumb. In so many ways, it had been Keith who had broken through all the negatives Shiro had attributed to his own personality, but hearing Pidge talk about the way Shiro had affected Keith made his heart swell in his chest.

“So let’s raise our glasses. Tonight we toast to Keith and Shiro… to the blizzard and the ridiculous amount of alcohol that brought them together… and to the love, faith and unfailing stubbornness that has kept them together. Congratulations you guys!” Pidge raised her glass to her lips, giving Keith an opening to spring from his seat and tackle her into a crushing hug before she could evade him.

Tucking his head close to Pidge’s ear, he swallowed hard to keep his voice from shaking. “Thanks, Pidge. For everything.” He had more he wanted to say but he had promised himself not to cry and he had already failed once during his vows. When Pidge’s arms found their way around his waist and returned his bruising embrace, he felt himself waver again.

“You deserve this, Keith, you always have. Now go love on your husband.” Pulling back, Pidge smiled at him through the hint of her own tears. “Also, Lance and Hunk planned speeches… so you might want to start drinking heavily now.”

Groaning dramatically, Keith let her spin him around and shove him back in Shiro’s direction. A goofy grin was still plastered over Shiro’s face, a smile that had been present over every moment of their day. Lifting his left hand, Shiro reached his hand out to Keith, his wedding ring catching the light of the candles in the centerpiece and making Keith’s heart skip a few beats.

Shiro was his husband now.

It was still a surreal thought, one that Keith hoped he would never get used to. In the same way that he had never gotten over the way Shiro’s sleepy smile made the tension ease from Keith’s shoulders as Shiro pulled him into the bed, or stopped feeling breathless when Shiro’s eyes lit up every time Keith surprised him with breakfast mac and cheese in bed on every anniversary of their first date, or even the way he felt safe and protected every time Shiro fell asleep across his lap during movie night, Keith hoped that the magic of loving Shiro would never leave him.

Today had been like a dream, one Keith prayed he would remember despite the spinning chaos that had surrounded every moment of their wedding. But it wasn’t a happy ending in the way the storybooks wanted him to believe, it was more of the beginning of their next adventure.

In true form to them, there had been a number of unexpected circumstances that had affected their day, but it had also led them to this moment, together with each other and all of the important people in their lives.

Making his way back to Shiro’s side, Keith slid into his seat and under his husband’s arm, welcoming the weight of Shiro’s hold over his shoulders. Turning to smile up at him, Keith heard the sound of glasses tapping all around them and laughed into the kiss that Shiro offered him. Both of them were going to need a serious amount of lip balm if everyone kept up this game, but Keith couldn’t find it in himself to care.

Leaning back in his chair, Shiro idly fiddled with the loose strands escaping Keith’s low ponytail. When they first met, Keith’s hair had been a haphazard nod to the outdated mullet. In three years it had grown past his shoulders and Shiro had found that brushing it brought them both a certain level of peace. Twisting his finger to curl black hair around it, Shiro felt his smile going lopsided again when Keith glanced over his shoulder.

This was the man Shiro got to love for the rest of his life. The man who had held his hands while telling Shiro all of the reasons he was worthy of being loved and swearing that if Shiro ever forgot them, that he would personally rent a billboard in the middle of the city to advertise those reasons for everyone to see. Keith had said all of this under an arch of rainbow flowers, eyes focused on Shiro even as all the eyes in the room were focused on Keith. Although Keith made Shiro feel loved every day they were together, it was that moment that cemented their official and legal tie to each other.

“Hey,” Shiro whispered, tugging lightly on Keith’s hair and encouraging him to turn around. Letting Keith’s hair fall from his grasp, Shiro pulled his husband forward by the lapels to kiss him again, tuning out the cheers that erupted around them. “I love you,” Shiro said, knowing that his voice was louder than he intended.

“And I love you,” Keith answered, settling more firmly into Shiro’s side and tilting his head in hopes of another kiss.

A clanging sound behind Keith’s back made him groan, the voice over the microphone asking if it was on causing him to groan even louder. Lance cleared his throat as Keith buried his face in Shiro’s shoulder, feeling Shiro’s laugh rumble through his chest.

“Okay, okay, settle down.” Lance waved his hands in the air, the tilt of his champagne glass making Pidge and Hunk eye him nervously and scoot their chairs back. Shiro smiled at the way Allura’s smile remained smitten even as Lance swayed slightly in his place. “Okay, so… I… along with my friends here,” Lance waved his hand, dangerously sloshing his drink again. “We have had a front row seat to the love story you see in front of you. BUT what most of you don’t know is that this love story is actually the Tale of Two Disasters.”

Around the room their wedding guests laughed through the rest of Lance’s (exaggerated) retelling of Shiro’s and Keith’s most embarrassing relationship moments, but neither Keith nor Shiro could be bothered to care about their ridiculousness being aired for everyone to hear.

Because in truth, they were disasters, but they were disasters for each other and over each other and they happily accepted this as a fact for the rest of their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple of details that didn't fit in: Keith's dad officiated the ceremony and Keith's mom insisted on Mother Son dances with BOTH Shiro and Keith. 
> 
> Also everyone got very, very, very drunk at the reception lol. (Which had a mac and cheese bar and a dessert table consisting of a variety of cookies along with their wedding cake!)

**Author's Note:**

> This is unbeta'ed so please forgive any errors! 
> 
> If you like this, please check out my other Sheith fanfictions:  
> [Unwritten](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15583593/chapters/36179688) a Sheith fic about Author Keith and Fanboy Shiro, filled with mutual pining and reuniting of childhood friends :) - complete  
> [Mine](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16302947) \- a one-shot of married Sheith getting jealous at a party and solving it with sexy times  
> [Where We Belong](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15730515) \- fluffy post Season 7 Domestic Sheith escaping for a weekend away to Keith's old shack  
> [No Secrets Between Us](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13860900) \- silly crack fic about the team finding out that Sheith are dating


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